Screening in Hot SU(2) Gauge Theory and Propagators in 3d Adjoint Higgs model

TL;DR

This study compares the electric and magnetic propagators of hot SU(2) gauge theory in 4d and 3d models using lattice simulations, finding dimensional reduction effective down to twice the critical temperature.

Contribution

It provides a detailed lattice analysis of propagators in different gauges and confirms the validity of dimensional reduction at relatively low temperatures.

Findings

Dimensional reduction accurately describes propagators at T=2 T_c

Electric propagators decay exponentially at large distances

Gauge dependence of electric screening mass is statistically insignificant

Abstract

We investigate the large distance behavior of the electric and magnetic propagators of hot SU(2) gauge theory in different gauges using lattice simulations of the full 4d theory and the effective, dimensionally reduced 3d theory. A comparison of the 3d and 4d data for the propagators suggests that dimensional reduction works surprisingly well down to temperatures T=2 T_c. A detailed study of the volume dependence of magnetic propagators is performed. The electric propagators show exponential decay at large distances in all gauges considered and a possible gauge dependence of the electric screening mass turns out to be statistically insignificant.